1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inorganic fiber article.
2. Discussion of the Background
Solar batteries are manufactured by forming transistors and the like on a Si substrate as a starting material. Therefore, a heating treatment is normally applied to the Si substrate several times. Moreover, a conveyer for conveying the Si substrate is provided inside the furnace for heating treatment, and a heat insulating material is also provided such that it surrounds the conveyer in order to reduce heat energy loss.
Here, with respect to the heat insulating material, for example, there has been used a plate shaped body manufactured through the following processes: first, a slurry is produced by mixing and dispersing a ceramic fiber, an inorganic binder, a fiber coagulant, and fiber flocculants, and using this slurry, a wet-type sheet forming process is carried out to form an aggregate; next, the aggregate is pressed and compressed in the thickness direction to manufacture the plate shaped body.
In the method for manufacturing the solar battery, wiring and the like are directly produced on the Si substrate; therefore, the cleanness of the surface of the Si substrate is under extremely strict requirements. Moreover, several kinds of heating treatments are necessarily carried out on the Si substrate. The several heating treatments on the Si substrate employs a furnace, and as a matter of course, extremely strict conditions are also imposed on the particle generation from the heat insulating material that forms the inner wall and the tray of the furnace.
This is because, if the particle scattering from the heat insulating material that forms the inner wall and the tray of the furnace adheres to the surface of the Si substrate during the several heating treatments, this becomes a serious cause of generating defective circuits. Such particle generation from the heat insulating material have been one of the causes for producing defective products in processes such as a process for forming a semiconductor circuit on substrates such as a glass substrate and a ceramic substrate, a process for manufacturing a display substrate, and manufacturing processes carried out in a chip-manufacturing equipment.
Thus, in order to lower the particle generation from the heat insulating material, JP-B 3606744 discloses, as shown in FIG. 2, for example, a heat resistant material 11 formed of a base member 13 which is made in contact with a glass layer 12 as shown in FIG. 2, the base member 13 mainly composed of an inorganic fiber based material 14 and containing an inorganic particle 15, the glass layer 12 obtained through carrying out heating treatment on a glass material-containing base member mainly composed of glass material. The base member further contains as a binder a glass 16 obtained through carrying out heating treatment on the above-mentioned glass material, and the glass layer 12 contains the inorganic fiber based material 14 as a reinforcing material.
The contents of JP-B 3606744 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.